DETROIT (AP) -- An eight-time felon convicted of writing bad checks and credit card fraud between 1998 and 2004 has won a state House seat in Michigan.

Detroit Democrat Brian Banks picked up roughly 68 percent of the vote in Tuesday's election. He said he talked about his past during the campaign with voters in Michigan's 1st House District, which includes parts of Detroit, Harper Woods, Grosse Pointe Woods and Grosse Pointe Shores.

With no incumbent running, Banks beat four other Democrats in the primary. In the general election he faced Republican Dan Schulte, a Grosse Pointe Shores city councilman, who got 32 percent.

Banks wouldn't be the first with a criminal past in the Legislature. State Sen. Bert Johnson, D-Highland Park, pleaded no contest in a 1993 armed robbery at age 19.